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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

You can say Mass without vestmentsTo impress the teenage kidsJust ignore the GIRMWe don’t give a figYou can fill the nave with dancing girlsand we will understandBut say the Mass in Latin and you’re done."

"The times of refreshing from the Lord had indeed come to the forlorn monastery ; the unheard-of conversion of so many noble youths filled the world with wonder. It was a proof that the Church was not only not dead, but not even asleep. At the beginning of the eleventh century, the heart of Christendom seemed to have failed, and all men thought that the world was coming to an end ; throughout the whole of the century the Church was either preparing for, or actually engaged in a deadly struggle with the civil power, and in that miserable confusion men seemed to ha^e lost their landmarks, and not to know what was to come of all the perplexity which they saw about them. Meanwhile, the Church herself felt the deteriorating effects of the struggle men saw the strange spectacle of courtier- bishops, acting as the ministers of kings, and behaving in all respects like the wild nobles, from whom they were only distinguished by wearing a mitre, and carrying a crozier. Let any one think how bishops behaved in the contest between St. Anselm and the king, or again in Germany, how many of them sided with the emperor against the Pope."

. . [O]pen your hearts and have some pity upon us. If you believe not that we need your help, alas the lack of faith. If you believe our need and care not for us, alas the lack of pity. For who so pitieth not us, whom can he pity? If you pity the poor, there is none so poor as we, that have not a bratte [rag] to put on our backs. If you pity the blind, there is none so blind as we, which are here in the dark saving for sights unpleasant and loathsome till some comfort come. If you pity the lame, there is none so lame as we, that neither can creep one foot out of the fire, nor have one hand at liberty to defend our face from the flame. Finally if you pity any man in pain, never knew you pain comparable to ours; whose fire as far passeth in heat all the fires that ever burned upon earth, as the hottest of all those passeth a feigned fire painted on a wall . .

. . Remember our thirst -while you sit and drink; our hunger while you be feasting; our restless watch while you be sleeping; our sore and grievous pain while you be playing; our hot burning fire while you be in pleasure and sporting; so may God make your offspring after remember you; so God keep you hence or not long here; but bring you shortly to that bliss, to which for our Lord's love help you to bring us, and we shall set hand to help you thither to us.